7.  The applicants, a group of individuals and the Foundation for Equality (of whose executive committee the first applicant is also a member empowered to act on its behalf in the present case), wished to hold, within the framework of Equality Days organised by the Foundation and planned for 10‑12 June 2005, an assembly (a march) in Warsaw with a view to alerting public opinion to the issue of discrimination against minorities – sexual, national, ethnic and religious – and also against women and disabled persons.
8.  On 10 May 2005 the organisers held a meeting with the Director of the Safety and Crisis Management Unit of Warsaw City Council. During this meeting an initial agreement was reached as to the itinerary of the planned march.
9.  On 11 May 2005 Mr Bączkowski obtained an instruction of the Warsaw Mayor's Office on “requirements which organisers of public assemblies have to comply with under the Road Traffic Act” should the assembly be regarded as an “event” (impreza) within the meaning of Article 65 of that Act.
10.  On 12 May 2005 the organisers applied to the City Council Road Traffic Office for permission to organise the march, the itinerary of which would lead from the Parliament buildings (Sejm) to Assembly Square (Plac Defilad) in the centre of Warsaw.
11.  On 3 June 2005 the Traffic Officer, acting on behalf of the Mayor of Warsaw, refused permission for the march, relying on the organisers' failure to submit a “traffic organisation plan” (“projekt organizacji ruchu”) within the meaning of Article 65 (a) of the Road Traffic Act, which they had allegedly been ordered to submit.
12.  On the same day the applicants informed the Mayor of Warsaw about stationary assemblies they intended to hold on 11 June 2005 in seven different squares in Warsaw. Four of these assemblies were intended to protest about discrimination against various minorities and to support actions of groups and organisations combating discrimination. The other three planned assemblies were to protest about discrimination against women.
13.  On 9 June 2005 the Mayor issued decisions banning the stationary assemblies to be organised by Mr Bączkowski, Mr Biedroń, Mr Kliszczyński, Ms Kostrzewa, Mr Szypuła, and another person, Mr N. (who is not an applicant), who are active in various non‑governmental organisations acting for the benefit of persons of homosexual orientation. In his decision the Mayor relied on the argument that assemblies held under the provisions of the Assemblies Act of 1990 (Ustawa o zgromadzeniach) had to be organised away from roads used for road traffic. If they were to use roads, more stringent requirements applied. The organisers wished to use cars carrying loudspeakers. They had failed to indicate where and how these cars would park during the assemblies so as not to disturb the traffic, and how the movement of persons and these cars between the assembly sites would be organised.
14.  Moreover, as a number of requests had been submitted to organise other assemblies on the same day the tenor of which ran counter to the ideas and intentions of the applicants, permission had to be refused in order to avoid any possible violent clashes between participants in the various demonstrations.
15.  On the same day the municipal authorities, acting on the Mayor's behalf, allowed the three planned assemblies concerning discrimination against women to be held as requested by the applicants.
16.  On the same day the same authorities permitted six other demonstrations to be held on 11 June 2005. The themes of these assemblies were as follows: “For more stringent measures against persons convicted of paedophilia”, “Against any legislative work on the law on partnerships”, “Against propaganda for partnerships”, “Education in Christian values, a guarantee of a moral society”, “Christians respecting God's and nature's laws are citizens of the first rank”, “Against adoption of children by homosexual couples”.
17.  On 11 June 2005, despite the decision given on 3 June 2005, the march took place. It followed the itinerary as planned in the original request of 12 May 2006. The march, attended by approximately 3,000 people, was protected by the police.
18.  In addition to the march, nine stationary assemblies were held on the same day under permission granted by the Mayor on 9 June 2005 (see paragraphs 15‑16 above).
19.  On 28 June 2005 the applicant Foundation appealed to the Local Government Appeals Board against the decision of 3 June 2005 refusing permission for the march. It was argued that the requirement to submit “a traffic organisation plan” lacked any legal basis and that the applicants had never been requested to submit such a document prior to the refusal. It was also argued that the decision amounted to an unwarranted restriction of freedom of assembly and that it had been dictated by ideological reasons incompatible with the tenets of democracy.
20.  On 22 August 2005 the Board quashed the contested decision, finding that it was unlawful. The Board observed that under the applicable provisions of administrative procedure the authorities were obliged to ensure that parties to administrative proceedings had an opportunity of effectively participating in them. In the applicant's case this obligation had not been respected in that the case file contained no evidence that the applicant Foundation had been informed of its procedural right to have access to the case file.
The Board's decision further read, inter alia:
“In the written grounds of the decision complained of, the first‑instance authority refers to the fact that no traffic organisation plan is to be found in the case file. Under section 65 (a) item 3 (9) an organiser of a demonstration is obliged to develop such a plan in co‑operation with the police if he or she is required to do so by the authority. However, in the case file there is no mention that the organisers were obliged to submit such a plan. (...) The document on the procedure for obtaining permission to organise an event which was served on the organisers contained no information on such an obligation either.
Having regard to the fact that the organisers' request concerned a march to be held on 11 June 2005 and that the appeal was received by the Board's Office [together with the case file] on 28 June 2005, the proceedings had already become devoid of purpose by that latter date.”
 
b)  The assemblies
21.  On 10 June 2005 the applicants appealed to the Mazowsze Governor against the Mayor's refusals of 9 June 2005 of permission to hold several of the planned assemblies. They argued that the assemblies were to be entirely peaceful and that banning them breached their freedom of assembly guaranteed by the Constitution. They submitted that the assemblies did not pose any threat to either public order or morals. They contested the argument relied on in the decision that they were required to submit a document on the planned itinerary between the places where the assemblies were to be held, arguing that they only intended to organise stationary assemblies, not any movement of persons between them, and that they should not be held responsible for the organisation or supervision of such movement.
22.  On 17 June 2005 the Mazowsze Governor quashed the contested 9 June 2005 refusals of authorisation to hold the assemblies .
It was first observed that these decisions breached the law in that the parties had been served only with copies of the decisions, not with originals as required by the law on administrative procedure. It was further noted that the Mayor had informed the media of his decisions before they had been served on the applicants, which was manifestly in breach of the principles of administrative procedure.
23.  It was further observed that the 1990 Assemblies Act was a guarantee of freedom of assembly in respect of both the organisation of and participation in assemblies. The Constitution clearly guaranteed freedom of assembly, not a right. It was not for the State to create a right to assembly; its obligation was limited to ensuring that assemblies were held peacefully. Thus the applicable law did not provide for any permit for the holding of an assembly.
24.  The Governor noted that the requirement to submit a permit to occupy a part of the road, based on the provisions of the Road Traffic Act, lacked any legal basis in the provisions of the Assemblies Act. The Mayor had assumed that the demonstration would occupy a part of the road, but had failed to take any steps to clarify whether this had really been the organisers' intention, which he was obliged to do by law.
It was further observed that a decision banning an assembly had to be regarded as a method of last resort because it radically restricted freedom of expression. The principle of proportionality required that any restriction of constitutionally protected freedoms be permitted only in so far as it was dictated by the concrete circumstances of a particular case.
25.  The Governor noted in this connection that the Mayor's reliance on the threat of violence between the demonstrations organised by the applicants and the counter‑demonstrations planned by other persons and organisations for the same day could not be countenanced. It was tantamount to the administration endorsing the intentions of organisations which clearly and deliberately intended to breach public order, whereas protecting the freedom of expression guaranteed by the Assemblies Act should be an essential task of the public powers.
26.  He then discontinued the proceedings as they had become devoid of purpose, the assemblies having taken place on 11 June 2005.
27.  “E. Siedlecka:  The Assemblies Act says that freedom of assembly can be restricted only if a demonstration might entail a danger to life or limb, or a major danger to property. Did the organisers of the march write anything in their application that indicates that there is such a danger?
Mayor of Warsaw:  I don't know, I haven't read the application. But I will ban the demonstration regardless of what they have written. I am not for discrimination on the ground of sexual orientation, for example by ruining people's professional careers. But there will be no public propaganda about homosexuality.